When I was considering purchasing another 80 I had a couple of options I pondered. 1. A stock diesel 80 series. 2. A 6bt swapped 80 series. 3. A LS powered 80. Purpose of the vehicle was mostly a daily driver, tow decently, be nice and civil on the street just cruising. The first 2 options I almost pulled the trigger on.
I bought my 92 fj80 5.3 LS swapped 80 for 3500 bucks. It was a bare bones basket case swap, I should have just started from scratch. Anyway now its approaching being mostly finished I really enjoy it. It has a tundra muffler, so its quiet and sounds just like a new 5.7 tundra. All the detailed stuff works-AC, Cruise, emissions are hooked up, all the stock gauges and shift lights work etc. It is such a nice driving cruiser, and I still have wind coming in because I don't have all the trim back in so will get even better. I would argue that it drives about equally as nice as a new tundra. My first recorded mpg was 18. It is such a easy motor to work on, it blows the 1fz away when it comes to ease of maintenance and repair. My oil pan gasket is leaking, looking at it, it looks like it will take me an hour to do the gasket. Both valve cover gaskets are also leaking, thats about 20 minutes per side if your really slow. Their is so much more room in the engine compartment you feel like you could put some luggage in their. I did everything on this cruiser myself except for paint. All in, including purchase price, shipping it to my place from across country, having it painted, adding elocker axles, upgrading from 700r4 to 4l60e, adding all the details to the swap, I am into it grand total about the same amount as buying a stock 150k mile locked 40th anniversary 80 off of classifieds.
A LS swap is totally worth it. If you have doubts of your abilities to do the swap, just drop it off at Proffitts and have them do it for 25k. People buy trd pro 4runners for 50k all the time. Even a bare bones new 4runner is over 30k. A LS swapped locked 80 will run circles around a trd pro 4runner/tacoma, and be cheaper and more fun even if you pay for the swap to be done. A LS will have more things go wrong with it than a 1fz. But whatever goes wrong is a easy repair, parts are cheap/plentiful, and usually its not a catastrophic issue and can be driven on for a while. If my 5.3 ever does kick the bucket, I won't exactly be sad. Summit Racing has a built 6.0 LS rated 460hp long block for 3500 bucks. The external dimensions of v8 LS motors are all the same, and intake, accessories, headers etc will all swap right over. You can even go LS7 if your suicidal, and its the same size externally, but I don't think you could keep it straight on the road.
I bought my 92 fj80 5.3 LS swapped 80 for 3500 bucks. It was a bare bones basket case swap, I should have just started from scratch. Anyway now its approaching being mostly finished I really enjoy it. It has a tundra muffler, so its quiet and sounds just like a new 5.7 tundra. All the detailed stuff works-AC, Cruise, emissions are hooked up, all the stock gauges and shift lights work etc. It is such a nice driving cruiser, and I still have wind coming in because I don't have all the trim back in so will get even better. I would argue that it drives about equally as nice as a new tundra. My first recorded mpg was 18. It is such a easy motor to work on, it blows the 1fz away when it comes to ease of maintenance and repair. My oil pan gasket is leaking, looking at it, it looks like it will take me an hour to do the gasket. Both valve cover gaskets are also leaking, thats about 20 minutes per side if your really slow. Their is so much more room in the engine compartment you feel like you could put some luggage in their. I did everything on this cruiser myself except for paint. All in, including purchase price, shipping it to my place from across country, having it painted, adding elocker axles, upgrading from 700r4 to 4l60e, adding all the details to the swap, I am into it grand total about the same amount as buying a stock 150k mile locked 40th anniversary 80 off of classifieds.
A LS swap is totally worth it. If you have doubts of your abilities to do the swap, just drop it off at Proffitts and have them do it for 25k. People buy trd pro 4runners for 50k all the time. Even a bare bones new 4runner is over 30k. A LS swapped locked 80 will run circles around a trd pro 4runner/tacoma, and be cheaper and more fun even if you pay for the swap to be done. A LS will have more things go wrong with it than a 1fz. But whatever goes wrong is a easy repair, parts are cheap/plentiful, and usually its not a catastrophic issue and can be driven on for a while. If my 5.3 ever does kick the bucket, I won't exactly be sad. Summit Racing has a built 6.0 LS rated 460hp long block for 3500 bucks. The external dimensions of v8 LS motors are all the same, and intake, accessories, headers etc will all swap right over. You can even go LS7 if your suicidal, and its the same size externally, but I don't think you could keep it straight on the road.